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On the relationship between gas and dust in 15 comets: an application to Comet 103P/Hartley 2 target of the NASA EPOXI mission of opportunity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2010

G. C. Sanzovo ,
D. Trevisan Sanzovo  and
A. A. de Almeida
G. C. Sanzovo
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, State University of Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brazil email: [email protected]
D. Trevisan Sanzovo
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, State University of Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brazil email: [email protected]
A. A. de Almeida
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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After the success of Deep Impact mission to hit the nucleus of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 with an impactor, the concerns are turned now to the possible reutilization of this dormant flyby spacecraft in the study of another comet, for only about 10% of the cost of the original mission. Comet 103P/Hartley 2 on UT 2010 October 11 is the most attractive target in terms of available fuel at rendezvous and arrival time at the comet. In addition, the comet has a low inclination so that major orbital plane changes in the spacecraft trajectory are unnecessary. In an effort to provide information concerning the planning of this new NASA EPOXI space mission of opportunity, we use in this work, visual magnitudes measurements available from International Comet Quarterly (ICQ) to obtain, applying the Semi-Empirical Method of Visual Magnitudes - SEMVM (de Almeida, Singh, & Huebner 1997), the water production rates (in molecules/s) related to its perihelion passage of 1997. When associated to the water vaporization theory of Delsemme (1982), these rates allowed the acquisition of the minimum dimension for the effective nuclear radius of the comet. The water production rates were then converted into gas production rates (in g/s) so that, with the help of the strong correlation between gas and dust found for 12 periodic comets and 3 non-period comets (Trevisan Sanzovo 2006), we obtained the dust loss rates (in g/s), its behavior with the heliocentric distance and the dust-to-gas ratios in this physically attractive rendezvous target-comet to Deep Impact spacecraft at a closest approach of 700 km.

Keywords

Gas release rates - Dust release rates - Dust-to-gas ratios - Short-period comets - Comet 103P/Hartley 2
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S263: Icy Bodies of the Solar System , August 2009 , pp. 272 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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